A UKRAINIAN MP branded a ‘traitor’ for switching sides to back the Russian invaders has been assassinated.

Oleksiy Kovalyov, 33, was blasted with a pump action shotgun alongside his wife, who was stabbed to death, becoming the sixth Ukrainian accused of collaborating to be assassinated by a hit squad.

The pair were attacked at his house in the Russian-occupied Kherson region, after surviving an earlier attempt to kill him with a car bomb.

The slain politician’s body was reportedly found by his horrified mother who then called emergency services. 

Ukrainian official Serhiy Khlan announced: “Former MP and traitor Oleksiy Kovalyov has been killed.”

Recent weeks have seen an upsurge in targeted assassinations of officials who have been shot, blown up and poisoned for working with the hated invaders in the war.

Just this week a top pro-Putin official in occupied Ukraine was killed in a car bomb as he went to pick up his daughter from nursery school.

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A popular Telegram channel run by Ukrainian journalist Andrei Tsaplienko confirmed: “The traitor, collaborator and former People's Deputy Oleksiy Kovalyov was shot dead in his own house.

“The occupiers have begun intensive searches and document checks. Be careful, Ukrainians.”

Before the war Kovalyov was an MP with the ruling Servant of the People party of President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv but switched sides in April.

After the earlier car bombing, which he blamed on the SBU Ukrainian secret service, he said defiantly in a video: “To my enemies and to those who planned this sabotage – you won’t stop me.”

The stark warning comes as body bags containing Putin allies continue to pile up.

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Shadowy guerrilla fighters, who have been training before the invasion with the help of US and UK special forces, have ruthlessly eliminated collaborators with the aim of sowing fear in their ranks.

After carrying out attacks they disappear then blend seamlessly into the local population to evade any Russian attempts to capture them and slip back to friendly territory.

They rely on secret stashes of tools of the assassins’ trade – explosives and pistols with silencers, as well as Kalashnikov rifles and grenade launchers.

Recent assassinations there include that of Putin stooge Vitaly Gura, an official in the Kherson region, who was shot dead in his office.

Dmitry Savluchenko, head of the families, youth, and sports department of the Kherson military-civilian administration, was killed in a bomb.

The explosion had burned two cars and shattered the windows of a nearby four-storey house.

Putin collaborator Askyar Laishev, who worked for Ukraine's secret service before swapping sides in 2014, was wiped out in a car bomb blast in Luhansk earlier this month.

Assassins are also picking off Putin allies in daring missions on Russian territory.

Pro-Putin local official Volodymyr Saldo is in hospital in Moscow after being poisoned while former deputy head of the Kremlin, Vyacheslav Volodin, 58, narrowly escaped death when Ukrainian missiles hit a Donetsk office he was in just minutes after he left.

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Other notable hits include that on pro-Russian activist and blogger Valery Kuleshov who wanted to become police chief under the occupying forces despite having no training.

One of the earliest victims of the resistance was Vlodymyr Struk, a pro-Russian mayor who welcomed Vladimir Putin’s invading forces.
He was kidnapped from his home and shot in the heart.

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